


cool cat, looking for a kitty

by wordquaff



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Ensemble season one cast also here, Jealousy, M/M, Slowly Editing As Always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 15:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18195713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordquaff/pseuds/wordquaff
Summary: in which some some interdimensional time nonsense takes place and Kitty has to play guidance counselor to adult men on a different Earth.coldatom week 2019 prompt: dc meets marvel





	cool cat, looking for a kitty

**Author's Note:**

> so i'm a little late to the coldatom week bandwagon, but I couldn't stop thinking about how much Kitty and Ray would get a long and I had to get it off my chest lol-- it's very rough, so I will be probably tweaking it on and off, but it's really just for shits and giggles so enjoy some crack!!
> 
> title from the song "summer in the city" by loving spoonful

  The day _began_ in the sixties, trying to stop an out of time plague from erupting in the middle of New Jersey, so really, Ray should have known something was going to go wrong.

  In fairness to them, they had barely been active for more than half an hour— hadn’t even left the time string to touch solid ground yet when everything hit the fan.

  Rip was in the middle of outlining how the plague was started by Vandal Savage— he wasn’t sure _how_ yet, but it looked like a scar in time. Somehow, probably in their previous run ins, he and obtained some sort of bacteria he had engineered into a pathological weapon. The timeline showed the dirty work was done by a mob head from, so they were planning on tailing him, and try to extract information about what the drug was bad of and how to steal it back.

  Or, at least they were until the ship shook like it had been railed by a bus and a bright flash of green and blue shocked through the halls that blinded Ray for a moment, and when his sight came back, he was surprised to see a single person standing, looking just as confused as he felt.

  The woman was short— shorter than even Sara, with wild curly brown hair and beautiful, pointed features— standing in a yellow and black leather get up, the only normal aspect being a perfectly shined silver Star of David around her neck.

  The scene was only stagnant for a moment before Mick cried and reared out his gun, fire off a stream. She yelped, and didn’t move which made Ray cringe, reaching out to try and stop the trigger but he knew it was too late, preparing himself for the smell of burning—

  The smell never came.

  His head whipped around to find her standing, the fire going completely through her like she was a ghost, and she was running towards him, clocking him across the face. _So not a ghost_ his fuddled mind supplied, mouth a little open in confusion— he could see the rest of the team, also frozen in disbelief. Mick fumbled back, obviously confused by what just happened, but Kendra wasn’t so phased.

  A tell tale grunt and a _swoosh_ and Ray’s vision was momentarily blocked by a wall of feathers leaping towards the woman, who ducked and disappeared into the floor. Jax exclaimed a _Jesus christ!_ at that, but the surprises just kept coming as she popped up a few feet away from her original spot, slightly more relaxed.

  “You have wings!?” she asked in a deeper voice than Ray was expecting honestly, but also not at all what he expected her to ask.

  “Obviously, Sherlock!” Leonard called out from the parlor, hands now brandishing the cold gun.

  Her brow furrowed, “Are you a mutant?”

  “ _Excuse_ me?” Kendra sounded dumbfounded.

  “Mutant! Do you carry the X Gene?”

  The question threw everyone off their rhythm because Ray sort of thought they were getting ready for a fight, not an interview— Sara stood, arms a little and visibly confused and Jax and Martin hadn’t even combined yet. Everyone was just sort of staring at the woman who was only looking at Kendra, eyes searching.

  “Is that a type of pants?” Mick grumbled, which earned him an elbow in the ribs.

  Her head snapped to him, face still a little pissed, which _yeah he did shoot her_ ,“How long have you been in space that you haven’t heard of _mutants?_ People with mutated genes that manifest in superpowers—”

  “Do you mean metahumans?” Ray asked which now earned _him_ the full fiery attention. It felt like he was getting yelled at by his principal in junior high and he shrank a little.

  “What the hell is a metahuman?”

  “A freak— with powers,” Mick, ever the poet, supplied, but the woman turned back to him, shoulders ready.

  “Okay, I can forgive trying to set me on _fire_ , but you are treading on thin—”

  Rip appeared from behind all of them, eyes skewered in evaluation, calculating his every step as he came in front of her, pushing her shoulder back, and then spoke as if his following words made any sort of sense, “Wait, everyone calm down. Ma’am… what _Earth_ are you on?”

  Even weirder, the woman looked like that was _normal_ string of words, “Earth-616. What are you?”

  Though Ray could hardly determine the insanity of that response in reference to the rest of the words that had been exchanged, apparently that was enough to send Rip into near catatonic exuberance.

 

○•○•○

 

  “So, what you’re trying to _say_ here, Rip,” Leonard drew from his place draped across the center console, “is that this three foot Jewish ghost woman with _lovely_ curls is from a different _dimension?_ ”  

  “I can’t tell if I should be insulted by that,” the woman said, squinting eyes evaluating Leonard carefully. Leonard shrugged, usual smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth.

  “Mr. Snart, that is _exactly_ what I am saying!” he pointed in his usual flustered uproar, stalking bouncingly around  the bridge making everyone crane their necks to follow. The woman didn’t seemed bothered, not moving from her leaning spot against the parlor doorway just sighing.

  “In my dimension, people like me— who have powers— are called mutants; my ability is that I can phase through matter. Walk through walls, on water, cloak my cells, the works. My team and I were trying to fight a mutant called the Shadow King who was trying to manipulate reality, so my friend Rachel and I combined our powers to attempt to phase through space and time—”

  “You can _do_ that?” Ray couldn’t help his outburst— this was a lot for his nerd heart to handle.

  She looked a little surprised by the interruption, “Kinda? I was exposed to this thing called the Black Vortex and got cosmic powers— it’s complicated,”

  “That is _so_ cool,” he whispered, which brought a smile to her face. Leonard rolled his eyes beside him. Rip seemed like he couldn’t keep silent any longer, going around to stand across from the woman.

  “What I believe occurred, is that while you were combining the force of your friend’s energy manipulation and astral projection with your cosmic phasing— our time ship was passing through a parallel point in _our_ space and you phase too far through _your_ reality, into ours,”

  “That makes about as much sense as dollar in England.” Leonard called, eyes surveying the group, “We all see that right?”

  Sara rolled her eyes aggressively in the back corner where she and Kendra sat, both following with blank stares, “Snart, we’re on a _time traveling spaceship_ hunting an immortal Egyptian demigod who _chose_ to call himself basically Randall. The fact you’re still looking for stuff to make sense is _shocking_. I say more power to the pretty lady,”

  “Thanks,” she said, face a little flustered for the first time.

  “I think it sounds kind of awesome!” Ray exclaimed, “I mean, you’re from a whole other dimension!! This isn’t like _another earth_ thing, like Barry talked about— it’s a whole different timeline, we probably don’t even _exist_ in your world!”  

  She shrugged, “I spent some time in space and never heard of any time traveling Randys so… I’m going to say no,”

  “So cool!”

  Next to him, Leonard rolled his eyes again but Ray didn’t dwell on that— nor did he dwell on the muttered _dork,_ “Whatever. Do they have _names_ on your world?”

  “No, we communicate through a series of well choreographed leg movements,” she deadpanned, which at least brought the _suggestion_ of a grin to Leonard’s scowl, “My name’s Kitty. Kitty Pryde.”

  “Leonard Snart,” he drew, gesturing his head around the room at the each member, “Rip Hunter, Kendra Saunders, Sara Lance, Mick Rory, Martin Stein, Jax Jackson, and this overgrown puppy who’s _drooling_ over your life story is Raymond Palmer,”

  “Ray’s fine,” he cut in.

  She nodded at the stream, but raised an eyebrow at the captain, “Your name is… Rip Hunter? Like... _government name_?”

  Before Rip could respond, Martin spoke from the other side of the console,“So, can’t Kitty just phase herself _back_ through the riff?”

  “I’m not sure that would work,” she sighed, “What… _Rip Hunter…_ was theorizing is what pushed my cosmic phasing to the extreme was Rachel’s powers. With out them, I think I would just phase between _this_ universe.”

  “What if we subsidized that force with dimensional technology?”

  Rip tutted, “That would possibly work, if we had _access_ to dimensional technology”

  “But we do,” Jax called out, “Well, not us! But Team Flash does; they’ve been had this whole Earth-2 super speedster problem thing. But we could probably get Cisco to let us borrow it,”

  “Wonderful!” Rip said as Kitty looked a little taken aback, “ _Team What?”_

  “Professor Stein, take Mr. Jackson and the jump ship to Central City and obtain that for us,”

  Martin nodded, “I’ll some other possibilities with Dr. Wells. He may have unique insight on this as well,”

  Rip responded approvingly, the two retreating forms of an already bickering duo left down the hallway to the jump ship. Ray understood Rips maniac energy— a whole different _dimension_ this was scientifically _amazing!!_ Astonishing, to borrow Martin’s favorite term. He turned to their visitor, trying to gauge her reaction, only to find her a little... despondent. His face dropped a little— he can’t believe he was so thoughtless. She was probably nervous as all heck she wasn’t going to be able to get back _home_ — surrounded by the Legends of all groups, everyone talking at her. He doesn’t blame her little throat clear before she spoke again, trying to get the attention of the group.

  “Well, I’d like to help. I have few theories on possible programs we could encode into your processing system that could maybe convert your existing jumping capabilities cross dimensionally.”

  Ray forgot his gloom, his face light up like a bulb, “Are you a scientist?”

  “I have PhD in astrophysics, and masters in software engineer and theoretical mathematics,”

  “Oh my god,” he whispered, reverent even to his own ears, “please never leave,”

  She laughed, bright and bubbly, but the mood was a little dampened by Leonard’s low grumble, “Great. Boy Scout’s found his _dream_ woman. We can call Stein back here, stage a wedding in the lab,”

  “Pass. I have a bad track record with weddings,” she said dryly, “Hey, just so we’re all clear, this guy’s sort of a dick, right?”

  “Yeah, we know,” Sara and Kendra chorused, which made him glare and sit back.

  “Well, even if you decline the matrimony, I do believe it would be helpful for Dr.’s Palmer and Pryde tried to find a way to properly _work_ whatever technology Team Flash has,” Rip made his way back to the center console, dragging his finger tip across a screen to pull back up the timeline information, “As for our anarchism, the rest of us should get back on the field and reevaluate where Savage may be hiding the gold. Ms. Lance, Ms. Saunders-, Mr. Rory- would you mind doing recon on his associate?”

  “Aye aye, Captain!” Kendra saluted lazily.

  “And Ms. Saunders— do try to keep the _hawking out_ to a minimum this time,”

  “I know a guy with wings,” Kitty said very matter of factly, before staring at Mick intently “And a guy with a fire gun. Huh.”

  Mick looked a little put out for that, grunting singularly before stalking out of the room in his usual brute hast— Kendra looked more like she wanted to stick around and ask about the winged guy Kitty knew, but Sara patted her shoulder twice before beginning walking her out of the bridge.

  “We’ll head to the fabricator know and be in contact,” she said, eyes lazily running over Kitty’s body as she existed, pausing just for a moment, “Kitty, it’s been an _absolute_ pleasure.”

  “Likewise,” she smiled again, a little more lewd than before. Ray now felt the desire to roll _his_ eyes. Of course. He really should have seen it coming, as it wasn’t like Sara hadn’t seduced every women she’d met in the last _year_.

  Rip apparently completely missed the interaction, eyes sweeping at untouchable speeds across a diagnostic report Gideon must of pulled up without the noticing. He tutted, disapprovingly, typing something.

  “Dr. Pryde’s dimensional displacement seems to have blown the Waverider’s adjusters into overdrive, so Mr Snart—”

  “I can go cool it down,” he pulled himself up like a puppet on strings, whipping the cold gun up with a lazy grace, teasing the trigger to release a puff of cold.

  “Wait, is your thing’s ice?” Leonard gave the tiniest, suspicious nod and Kitty narrowed her eyes, “This is eerily familiar… there’s not a ginger around here with laser eyes, is there?”

  “Do you have one of those?”

  She made direct, unflinching eye contact with Ray, voice severely pained, “I have _several_.”

 

○•○•○

 

  “Raymond,”

  Ray turned around at the call of his name— he had shown Kitty where the lab was, before excusing himself to storage to get some spare parts from unfinished projects to sew together into whatever it was they need to make. He was on his way back, just to turn and see Leonard leaning against the hallway wall, neck rolling like _he_ was the one being inconvenienced.

  “Leonard,” he responded, same tone which coaxed a half smile out of the other man.

  “How’s your _friend_?” he chewed every word out, face more edging from impassive to scowl.

  “She’s in the lab— when I left, she already was pouring equations _I_ don’t even fully recognize on the whiteboard. Dude, she’s the real deal,”

  “I’ll bet,” he grumbled, “and don’t call me _dude_ ,” he pushed himself off the wall with his one foot, sauntering towards him and Ray very purposefully did not look at his hips, “It pains me to admit, but it’ll thrill you to know that it seems like _Kitty_ was telling the truth. I had Gideon run a diagnostic on her— none of her signatures seem to be originated from anywhere in this known _universe_ so.”

  “Len! That’s an invasion of privacy— why the heck did you do that!?”

  “Because nobody else was!” he snapped, “You all were just _willing_ to believe a complete stranger about some _crazy_ story she has no proof for? I’m as much of a humanist as the next man, Raymond, but I’ve never been gullible.”

  “Trusting isn’t gullible,”

  “ _Trusting_ someone because of her pretty face is,”

   _Now_ , he rolled his eyes. Out of all people to be having this conversation with… “Give me a little more credit than that, come on. She’s scared, and she’s alone, and she’s surrounded by complete strangers— forgive me for feeling a little sympathy,”

  “You’re just _overflowing_ with sympathy, aren’t you?” he drew, mouth tight.

  “Don’t say that like its a bad thing. You could do with some more.”

  “Whatever.” he crossed his arms, eyes leaving Ray’s for the first time. They always seemed to do that, never _blink_ around each other, just hyper focused, “I’m just looking out for—” he cut himself off, but Ray was _not_ letting that go that easy.

  “The team?” Ray grinned, leaning a little closer ill he could feel the heat coming off his arms, “Because you _care_ about us?”

  He was still for a moment, meeting his gaze rolled his eyes again and pushed pass him down the hall. Ray laughed behind him, chest feeling light in that disconcerting way it always did after Leonard talked to him.

 

○•○•○

 

  When he finally entered the lab, he found the whiteboard completely covered in Expo marker, but the space in front of it empty. Curiously, Kityt— now in a yellow sweater and jeans— had apparently abandoned station at the equations and was now evaluating the Atom suit through glasses perched at the tip of her nose, uttering slightly under her breath.

  “Where’d you get the glasses?” he asked, and to her great credit, she didn’t jump. She didn’t even take her eyes off the suit.

  “Gideon synthesized them for me with the clothes. She also gave me an eye exam, it was very thorough,” She ran her hands down the breastplate, fingertips prying off the diaphragm to expose the wiring, “Did you build this?”

  “Yup! Designed it too! I used to run a tech company, but then a mass serial killer kidnapped me and faked my death, so I had to give it up.”

  “It be like that sometimes,”

  He laughed, which made her smile back, “Doesn’t it just?”

  “The resilience of the frame is _incredible._ What’s it made of— vibranium? Adamantium?” at his confused stare, her face dropped a little, “You don’t have those in this universe, do you?”

  “Sorry, no. It’s just made of an alloy I self mixed— it needed something that would be able to withstand a lot, while not overheating the operations. Different parts of the exoskeleton are different mixes; the majority is a carbon-steel mix mostly,”

  “Best combination of tensile and yield strength, make perfect sense,” she punched the side of his arm sisterly, “Dude! You are like a forreal genius!”

  “Why, thank you, doctor!” he beamed, turning to check on the acrylic board she had basically filled from corner to corner. Her equations were written impeccably neat, in uniform lines and  with every number, he felt even more excitement bubbling in his chest. It was _obvious_ Kitty was brilliant, a few concepts even throwing him for a loop which was _so cool_ , “Seems like I’m in good company here,”

  “Oh how you flatter,” she waved him off, slipping around Ray to gesture around her scribbles, “Basically that I’m thinking is that combining the breech tech your friends from Stark Labs—”

  “Star Labs—”

  “ _Star Labs_ that travel between Earths and the lovely Gideon’s time stream navigation could be the starting point— that is of course, if you’ll let me,”

  “ _Since you asked so nicely, Dr. Pryde,”_ Gideon chimed in, which prompted her to blow a kiss towards the ceiling.

  Ray laughed, “I mean, it certainly sounds like it could work— are you thinking a single blast that’s open an interdimensional breech?”

  “Probably our best bet. We’d also need a place to fire it that’s more... stable. Firing that kind of power in the middle of the time stream seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I don’t want to miss and send Genghis Khan into the middle of my classroom,”

  “Oh, you’re a teacher?!”

  “Headmaster,” she smiled, “at Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach which is a series of words that mean nothing to you, but trust me! When it’s not being blown up, it is a great school filled with absolute _idiots_.”  

  “I can believe it’s great with you at the helm,”

  “Watch it, Palmer,” she laughed good naturedly, “Keep that up and your boyfriend will have an _actual_ reason to be jealous,”

  That threw him a little bit, feeling his face skewer, “I don’t have a boyfriend,”

  “What about the short haired guy? Snart, right? Moses, you guys got some _weird_ names here,”

  “ _Leonard_ ? No, no,” he felt his face flush horribly, and by Kitty’s amused, raised eyebrow it was obvious she didn’t miss it either, “We’re not— he’s not my boyfriend. He doesn’t even really _like_ me as a person at all.”

  “Really? Is that why he’s been glaring holes into the back of my head since you said I was quote _so cool_?”

  “No, he’s just… you know, he has a hard exterior. And interior.” he busied himself, hands fumbling with a half built palm accelerator next to him. “That is— you haven’t been here for long, but trust me, Leonard and I aren’t _like_ that. Well— I mean, _he_ pretty clearly isn’t interested, so,”

  “Wow. I take back everything I’ve said, you are an idiot.” at his affronted scoff, Kitty just laughed and went on, “I mean, Ray. Come _on_ , don’t be _dense_ — the guy is clearly threatened! Which is insane, by the way because while you are very nice, I am not interested,”

  “Feelings mutual,” desperately trying to derail this conversation, but she didn’t let go.

  “I’m just saying, you like him, he likes you. I run a high school, I know how this goes— so how about you proof the brain develops in your twenties and ask the boy to the dance?”

  “It’s not as simple as that,”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “No!” he cried, a little flustered, “It’s not!! I mean, despite the fact he’s not _into me_ , that doesn’t change the face he’s a literal felon! He’s cold, and brutal, and also once— tried to kill my friend Barry!”   
  “Nobody’s perfect.” she shrugged, which was horribly charming and in another situation would have earned a laugh.

  “I mean, even if everything were to go right, like every possibility, we’re still teammates on an time traveling revenge team. It’s messy, Kitty.”

  She sighed, leaning against the desk arms crossed, “Look, I get it. My ex-girlfriend broke up with me and the literally went to hell for a full decade and then I almost married her brother, so I get messy. I’m an _ambassador_ of messy,”

  “Why do I feel a but coming?”

  “ _But_ , Ray, I mean… all of you guys here— hell even _I_ — live in a complicated world. Things don’t always make perfect sense or work _perfectly_ and nothing is ever... simple. Good things only last so long in our worlds before an irrevocably terrible thing rears its head, am I wrong?”

  “That’s optimistic,”

  “That’s realistic. We’re not exactly Joe Schmo from down the street, there are things we don’t get to have,”

  “Simplicity being one of them?”

  “Yeah. Instead, we get things like secret brothers, or evil shape shifting moms, or a sewer man forcing you to get married at seventeen and yes, these are all real examples,”

  “Yeah, we’re gonna dive into all of those—”

  “Ray,” she grabbed his hand, smiling a little sadly, “Find what _can_ make you happy and live with it, for however long you can. Call it impulsive, call it selfish, whatever. I think it’s the only way we can stay sane.”

  “Do you even follow this advice?”

  “I’ve been engaged like three times, so yeah, I probably follow it too much,” he laughed a little with here, “I’m not saying it’s foolproof. _I’m_ an idiot don’t let this-” she gestured at the board, “fool you. I’m an idiot.”

  “No, you’re not. I mean, maybe for caring so much about my dumb old love life,”

  “Nah, that’s worth my time. You’re a good guy, Palmer, I can tell. Terrible taste in men obviously, but there’s no accounting for that,”

  “He’s not so bad when you get to know him,”

  “They never are,”

  He laughed, fiddling with the accelerator again, “No he really is. I mean, he’s still a dick, but… I dunno, he _cares_ , you know? Like he really passionately loyal to the people he cares about, and when his whole focus is on you… you just feel so _important_. That sounds dumb,”

  “Don’t do that— it’s not dumb. It’s sweet, actually.”

  “He’s sort of a sap too, which is… well, adorable. He doesn’t show it but he’s super sentimental,”

  “Yeah, a lot of psychopaths are,” she grinned at the shoulder check he gave her— or tried. Even with her propping up on the desk, he had probably about thirteen inches on her.

  “Well now I feel all types of exposed,” he giggled a little nervously, shrugging off the vulnerability, “You share now. You have someone special?”

  “That is… complicated.”

  “A very presumptuous woman once told me complicated a certainty,”

  “Oh, fuck off,” she rolled her eyes, “I’m just saying it _is._ That ex I talked about. From before,”

  “The one from hell?”

  “And the one who’s brother I nearly married. Well… let’s just say there was a very clear motivating factor as to why I didn’t marry him,”

  “What was... “ he caught up, “oh. So she’s not so much an ex anymore?”

  “Maybe. I dunno. Part of me thinks I waited too long and now…” she trailed off, face a little somber, “I mean before it was maybe too late. Now, I… I just want to get home,”

  “Hey,” he grabbed her hand again, “We’ll get you home. Scout’s honor,”

  She smiled, shaking her palm free, but it wasn’t unkind. Instead, it reset the mood, back to the playful banter, “Hey, until then, what’s that Sara girl’s deal? She single?”

  “Ooh.You definitely have a type.”

 

○•○•○

 

  Between the two of them, the prototype didn’t take long to mock up. Or at least the best they could without the information from Team Flash. Kitty worked a lot like Ray did, jumping at problems with full force, little hesitation. He had gotten used to Martin’s hesitant patience, and it was sort of refreshing to be with someone so willing to just _try_ things. She reminded him of Felicity, sort of, but with a confident tenacity that was difficult to assign to anyone else.

  Together, they finished before Jax and Martin returned, so they had found themselves back on the bridge as they exchanged stories, Rip occasionally throwing in comment or note, and Leonard glaring annoyed at their antics. Kitty didn’t seem to mind his disapproval— if anything, she seemed to be utterly amused by it which only seemed to annoy Leonard more.

  If Ray was being honest, it was kind of cute.

  She was halfway through telling them about her team ( _The X Men_ she had told them, _total gay disasters_ ) had fought a guy named Cyberspace in a Pizza Hut, when footsteps and bickering voices interrupted her from the hall from the cargo bay. Sara, Kendra, and Ray reappeared, all still dressed in their sixties garb.

  “You’re back,” Rip greeted from the parlor, “Did you find anything useful?”

  “We found where he’s stashing his goods,” Mick grunted, sitting himself down across from Kitty, giant neck stretching his turtleneck to its extreme.

  Kendra made a noise of protest, “Well, we _know_ where’s he’s keeping the serum. It’s a little more complicated than just going in a grabbing it though, _Mick._ ”

  “I know better than to take Mr. Rory’s assessments at face value, thank you Kendra,”

  “Savage’s gooine’s a part of this whole mob scene that’s running the whole town— he’s got a warehouse that’s protected by the _state government._ We checked it out and the whole thing is crawling with armed guards,”

  Finally, Leonard seemingly perked up, “Well, if you wanted to excite me, Kendra…”

  “That’s what I said,” Mick gruffed, “Ain’t ever been nothing we can’t grab,”

  “In case you’ve _forgotten_ I am a _thief_ , sort of my whole gig here,” he stood up, cracking every joint in his body and Ray can’t believe he’s attracted to that, “Send me the location,”

  Kitty looked amused by the whole interaction, but Sara looked significantly less so, “Cool your jets, Snart, I actually had a different idea.”

  The entire team looked at here in surprise. Leonard’s cockiness aside, he was right— it wasn’t exactly a discussion about this kind of stuff. They always defaulted to listen to him in these sort of situations, “Share with the class, _Sara,_ ”

  “I am also curious as to what you’re planning here, Ms. Lance,”

  Instead of answering that, she turned to Kitty, who looked surprised to be involved in this at all, “Kitty, you said you phase through matter right?”

  “Yeah. That’s sort of _my_ whole gig.”

  “You also said you can conceal yourself from view?”

  “More or less. I can camouflage into the surrounding colors, so I can sell the illusion. In shadow, I’m completely invisible. Are you implying what I _think_ you’re implying?”

  “I would like to know that as well, Sara, because it sounds like me you are trying to let a women we met _seven hours ago_ steal an antidote that would save millions of people,” Leonard’s voice was completely cold, making him flinch just a little.

  “I’m just saying, we can’t ignore the fact we have a huge advantage on the ship right now and we would be stupid if we didn’t use her!”

  “Ms. Lance, we can’t ask Dr. Pryde to put herself in danger for—”  
  “Uh, I’ll do it,” Kitty interrupted, easily “You guys are helping me get back home, I owe you something. I’d like to help— I don’t fully understand the context sure or really _who_ Vandal Savage is, but I’m down.”

  “Thieving is not just a matter of   _ability,_ Kitty, it takes skill. Sending a rookie in regardless of intangibility a recipe for disaster,”

  “Bold of you to assume that it’s my first time.” she said dryly, “I was a marginalized teenager in what essentially amounts to a street gang who literally could walk through walls. You really think I didn’t steal things from the military?”

  “Child’s play. Do you expect me to be impressed?”

  “Depends, do you want to see the original Roswell records? Because I have them”

  Ray felt his eyes bounce between the two of them, their gazes matching each other in complete competition. Half his brain was stuck on the _Kitty has the Roswell files and are the details the same on her earth_ and half his brain annoyingly replying _Leonard’s really hot right now_.

  Sara ignored the silent competition gestured, vindicated at Kitty, eyes trained on their captain, “Look, I love watching Snart make the plan, execute the plan, see the plan go wrong, throw out the plan as much as the next girl, but we make it easy on ourselves once? I promise you. We can go back to fucking everything up next week,”

  “To be fair, Kitty and I finished as much as we could without the Professor and Jax, so it’s not like we’ll be doing anything here,” Ray offered, shrugging, “And Len, we can go with her if you’d like.”

  “To pick her mess?” Leonard drew, but Kitty’s cutting reply was cut off by Rip.

  “Dr. Pryde, if you’re willing… we _would_ appreciate your discretion,”

  “Please. This is nothing, give me an hour. Also! I don’t care I’m going to be invisible, I’m dressing up,” she pushed herself off the chair, clapping twice, “If you wanna come with, Leonard, _mach shnel_. You might learn something,”

  “ _Nebbish_ ,” he muttered back, but she quickly shot back, “ _Gonif_ , you don’t wanna play this game with me,”

  He rolled his eyes but followed her towards the fabrication room, obviously ignoring the snickers from everyone else in the room, including Mick who muttered, “I like her.”

 

○•○•○

 

  They got the rest of the situation through comms— Leonard did end up going along with Kitty who very obviously did not need the help. The trek there with Sara’s guiding was fill with a quippy back and forth, the two of them bickering the whole time. The jabs got softer and softer as they get on, which made Ray smile a little to himself. It was that softness that hid beneath his surface that he was telling Kitty about— Leonard talked a big game, played a big game, but when it came down to keeping up hating some like Barry, Kitty, or Jax… he couldn’t help himself.

  The actual heist was… anticlimactic almost. Kitty wasn’t lying— she really did have the perfect skill set for thieving— and by maintaining contact with Leonard, she was able to bring him along. (Ray made a mental note to ask more about her biology, if he got a chance because these mutants seemed like a whole separate gig from metahumans and it was _fascinating_.) Together, they were literally in and out of the warehouse within forty-five minutes.

  And even Leonard couldn’t admit he wasn’t impressed.

  And sue him, he wanted to _gloat_ a little bit, rub it in Leonard’s face that _ha,_ he was right, Kitty’s _great_ and Leonard was wrong, so as soon as he heard their comms click off in the cargo bay, he slipped down to meet them at the cargo bay and brag a little.

  He got there a little late, hearing just the two of them left in there, Sara apparently absconded to probably do the same with Rip. He was about to expose himself, but suddenly thought he heard his name and decided to eavesdrop just a little.

  “I’m a big enough man,” Leonard was saying, voice playful, “to admit I was wrong about you,”

  Ray smiled to himself. Leonard’s voice always put a little catch in his throat, but hearing him admit he’s wrong was really working for him.

  “Same. I’ve been convinced. Beneath you’re whole _thing_ , you’re a good guy,”

  “You’re just saying that because you know I’m Jewish now,”

  “Partially yes. But also because Ray talked you up so much, _I_ almost fell in love with you,”

  He tch’ed. Ray flushed, but looked around the wall to glance at them— Leonard had his back to Ray, shaking his head at Kitty, who stood amused as hell.

  “Katherine, watch yourself.”

  “Come on, asshole. I expect this from Ray— he’s too sweet. But I expected a little more from you! Why the hell are you and him still acting like middle schoolers?”

  “Do strangers ask invasive questions in your universe or…?”

  “I think you owe me this, after you’ve been a jealous idiot over me all day, when I’m obviously trying to bone Sara and Ray’s literally obsessed with you,”

  He looked off to the side, Ray could see his mouth tighten from over his shoulder, “My _feelings_ are not important. They don’t get trump him. I couldn’t bring Raymond into my shit, okay? He deserves better, simple as that.”

  “Because he’s an adult who can’t make his own decisions, I forgot, right,”   

  “We don’t know each other, so I will give you a little insight here, Pryde. I’m fucked up.”

  “We’re all fucked up, Leonard. I was recruited as a child soldier a week after my bat mitzvah  by a centralist millionaire and spent the next twenty years watching my friends die, okay? We all got shit.” she looked at him, eyes shifting a little deeper, “You think Ray doesn’t have shit too?”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Talk to each other. Like adults.

  “What do I say? Raymond, I know I’m the physical manifestation of everything you hate in the world, but I’m quite possibly in love with you so could you get over that?”

  The words hit Ray, but it was like he did process them. His chest felt— ecstatic. Light, shining, like a… a balloon as childish and stupid that felt to think, it was _true. Possibly in love.._ His hearing felt wrong, fuzzy but he could just barely pick out Kitty’s voice.  

  “Is that how adults act in this universe?”

  “I think I hate you again.”

  “So? Look, you’re a little high on your own misery, Leonard. I know you think you’re protecting him here, but all you’re doing is denying him the right to choose,”

  “Because you know what he wants?” he snapped, obviously back into a corner. He attacked when he had nowhere to escape to.

  “The way he talked about you in the lab, Leonard, I wasn’t kidding. It’s not a crush or something that’s came easy to him. So how about you cut him some slack?” she didn’t give him time to retort, shouldering past him, raising an eyebrow evenly. She made her way around the boxes, Leonard standing alone now. Ray say her coming towards him, tucking himself behind a bunch of boxes away from sight.

  As she passed him, she looked over, winking quickly and whispered, “Go get him.”

 

○•○•○

 

  He gave him an hour before Ray found Leonard in the library.

  He was perched on the desk, legs splayed about haphazardly in an effortless dangerousness— reading some ridiculously old looking book. He looked up, blue eyes not giving anything away, voice drawing in his usual performance.

  “Rip has quite an extensive Hebrew library- I’m trying to one up Kitty with—”

  Whatever he was saying, got lost when Ray grabbed the curve of his jaw and pulled their lips together. He heard a surprised _hmph_ for just a second, before Leonard melted into him, entire body molding to his own, hands slipping to pull Ray in by the waist.

  There wasn’t an explosion, wasn’t fireworks. It was a slow crackle, working its way up from his toes to the the tip of his head, warmth caressing every finger tip and eyelash— he felt like coming _home._ Sexiness was there, the heat was present but it wasn’t overwhelming- loss in too much feeling. Leonard’s mouth was warm and open, and playing easy against his own, tongue teasing at the seams of his lips and back of his teeth— it was…

  It was nothing like what he was expecting. It was what he’s always been too afraid to hope for.

  They broke off, a soft, wet pop between them, breath tingling as they met in small little kisses, until they just had foreheads touching, grinning maniacally.

  “God dammit,” Leonard muttered, “Do I have to thank Pryde for this?”

 

○•○•○

 

  When Martin and Jax came back with the part, it did not surprise Ray at all that Kitty’s equation worked nearly perfectly. They parked in a field, still in the sixties with Rip assuring that the time displacement shouldn’t matter. The breech was brighter than Ray thought it would be, a luminescent blue with a cold breeze gusting against his face. He didn’t noticed, honestly, with the warmth of Leonard leaning back against his chest, hair fuzz tickling his chin.

  Martin looked regretful that he missed the creation of the device, but he and Jax said their goodbyes politely, Kitty shaking both their hands and Mick batting the offered palm away. Kendra pulled her into a tight hug, chatting about how much she enjoyed watching her stick it to Leonard. Rip shook her hand fervently, pleasantries tinged with his still present mania. He was sort of an embarrassing dad.

  She made her way to Ray and Leonard, crossing her arms pointedly, “Got something to say to me boys?”

  “No.” Leonard deadpanned, but Ray spoke over him with, “Thank you.”

She laughed clapping her hands around their shoulders pulling them into a slightly awkward hug, “I wish you both the best, honestly. Even Leonard. You deserve each other,”

  “And you— I hope it works out with the maybe.”

  She pulled back, smile a little hopeful, a little sad. She looked younger than she had when she arrived, but terribly tired. He didn’t want to let her go, but he knew she didn’t need them.

  “I’ll try not to disappoint you,” she smirked, “ _L'hitraot_ ,”

  “ _L'hitraot_ ,” they each said back, Leonard’s warm as he’s heard. The change was obvious, even to Kitty who gave them another embrace before moving to Sara.

  Of course, because she was Sara, she pulled her into a deep, way too intimate kiss for the whole team to see. Mostly they all gagged as Kitty leaned in happily, hands coming around her shoulders, and Leonard wolf whistling. The two women parted, identical smirks in place, Kitty walking backwards, calling out, “I’ll call you,”

  Sara laughed at that, hands in her pockets looking proud of herself.

  As Kitty disappeared into the breach, the light turned green before it ate itself, disappearing and Ray felt his boyfriend turn to slip an arm around his waist and he felt whole.

**Author's Note:**

> not very shippy i know, but im a lesbian i love talking about feelings- thanks so much for reading!!


End file.
